I have only very few issues with 1.7.10 and 1.7.12+ that are keeping me from playing very often and unconditionally recommending this game. Here a list as brief as possible (marked with "minor issue", "issue" and "serious issue" as best as possible), thank you in advance for your attention:

DESIGN: - Issue / Bug: Setting "automatic" to upgrade or retrofit does not always upgrade or retrofit according to plan - Serious Issue: pre-designed "optimal" designs for each race are too static, not always optimal for each research contingency, predictable; Solution: ShadowTiger's brilliant solution here.

UI - Minor Issue: Certain race-specific conditions, e.g. "Own (largest) ocean planets", are impossible to find; Solution: an additional selection option in the galaxy map to potential colonies: Planets (and Moons) which displays all colonizable bodies in the galaxy, no matter to whom they belong or what tech they require. They are then sortable in the second tab according to type (Continental, desert, etc.). - Minor Issue: Automated tax settings have low, medium, and high, but no selection for "zero"; Solution: Add option for "none" to tax rate - Minor Issue: Alarm for "being attacked" undifferentiated; Solution: separate Checkboxes for "Attack by Creature", "Attack by Pirate", "Attack by Enemy" - Minor Issue: Often difficult to see needs of colonies in early game (i.e. spaceport building queues halt at x% for undetermined time). Solution: tab in Construction Queue "Waiting for Resources (X, Y, Z)" - Issue: With a valid construction ship selected in the selection window bottom left, we currently CANNOT select a valid target (potential resource) from the empire management lists middle left. Solution: Right-clicking on a valid potential target sends the valid selected construction ship to construct a default item at that target. - Issue: The only way to see a ship's cargo / components is to call up the entire list of all ships (default double-click on ship), which after mid-game takes many seconds. Solution: Shift-Double-Click or Ctr-Double-Click lists cargo / components of that ship only - Minor Issue: Only one portrait per race :-( Solution: Five portraits per race! ;-)

GAMEPLAY / UI - Serious Issue: Starting mid-game, most luxury resources and often many strategic resources become superfluous (i.e. all needs are always met, all colonies have access to 10+ luxuries). There is thus no "reason" to engage in hostilities, because there is nothing worth fighting over. Solution: In Game Setup, add 2 sliders, one for Luxury Resource Proliferation and one for Strategic Resource Proliferation, from very rare to extremely abundant

AI / UI - Serious Issue: "Load Troops at..." command sends all selected ships in fleet to same colony, usual result of which is that 1 ship is loaded and X ships are empty. Troop loading is currently a severe micromanagement challenge. Solution: Command "Load Maximum Troops" to send multiple ships to various colonies. - Issue: The order in which the AI carries out construction orders with its construction ships appears to be static and/or suboptimal. Solution: The player gains more control by opening a construction queue listing (hotkey: "Q") of construction ships only and those ships' queued tasks; the player can move items up and down in these lists or delete them entirely (much like the current construction queue listings for spaceports)

BUGs - Issue: Some ships still will not refuel at resupply ships even if manually ordered to do so; some ships will never refuel at resupply ships if given the order to "refuel at nearest" - if either a resort or a research base is queued to build at a certain location which gives bonuses to both, you cannot queue the other (resort or research base), but instead receive the error message: "CANNOT BUILD: Not enough money" despite having sufficient funds - Minor Issue: space stations not at colonies cannot be retrofitted. Solution: Either remove retrofit button or allow space stations to be retrofitted with construction ships

- Minor Issue: Often difficult to see needs of colonies in early game (i.e. spaceport building queues halt at x% for undetermined time). Solution: tab in Construction Queue "Waiting for Resources (X, Y, Z)"

This would be awesome.

Also, I noticed, at least on fleets set to escort, that the lead ship often stays behind while the others follow the target.

I have not seen very many responses in here since beta .13 came out either. We just have to assume that they are reading these posts adn wait to see what the next beta has.

A month after that, I'm not sure the information loop is working correctly. I'd really really like to have some form of feedback indicating that some (any?) things are being worked on for a patch and which / any for an "expansion"